Devotions are a wonderful and critical part of any believer's growth in Jesus. It's an opportunity to take time each day to connect with and hear from the Lord. Devotions are about being discipled by the Holy Spirit.

Below is a description of how to journal what you've heard from the Lord as you read. We use the accrostic W.A.S.H. to help keep our journalling on track.

Let's get started...

W is for Word

Before you begin ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and to reveal Jesus to you. Read the passages. As you are reading, underline anything the Lord impresses to your life personally. Then turn to a fresh page in your journal to write the verses that God has just shown you.

A is for Apply

Now enter how you can apply the verse(s) to you personally.

S is for Serve

Next enter how you can serve others based on the verse(s) you've written down.

H is for Heart-to-Heart

Finally write a prayer that expresses a heart-to-heart conversation with the Lord.

The Gospel of John tells us that the Word became flesh in Jesus. Jesus told Simon Peter that He washes the feet of His disciples. A daily time in the Word of God (The Bible) is like getting a good wash.

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Why should I believe what the Bible says?

How do I know I can trust it?

After all, it's thousands of years old!

That's a valid concern, so Harvest Ministries put together a little e-book that touches on the credibility of Scripture. It's called Is the Bible Reliable? and it's yours for free if you're interested.

Sometimes we find ourselves facing circumstances that need the help of a trained counselor. And from time to time we need resources that are found outside of our church family. Below are a few links to help you find support in those times.
While you puruse support, don't hesitate to go back to the top of this page and let us know how we can pray for you.

Today we live in a culture that says, 'Life should be easy and work well.' This attitude, called entitlement, influences our most important institutions: family, business, church, and government. Its devastating effects contribute to relational problems, work ethic issues, and emotional struggles. It comes down to this: People are not getting to where they want to go, because they don't know how to do life the hard way. Entitlement keeps them from tackling challenges and finding success. But whether readers are struggling with their own sense of entitlement or dealing with someone who acts entitled, The Entitlement Cure will equip them to turn away from a life of mediocrity to a life of engagement, satisfaction, and joy. Drawing from his experience as a counselor and leadership consultant, renowned psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. John Townsend explores strategies for fighting entitlement, such as: Take a meaningful risk every week - Find ways to minimize regret - Grasp the value of keeping inconvenient commitments - Understand why saying 'I don t know' is the first step toward success. In a culture that encourages shortcuts and irresponsibility, The Entitlement Cure provides principles and skills to help you both navigate life with those around you who have an entitlement mindset and identify areas in your own life where you are stuck in 'easy way' living. Dr. Townsend will show you how to become successful, resolve obstacles in life, and help those around you. Ultimately, The Entitlement Cure provides practical tools for a life of success that works for anyone.

a glorious dark: Finding Hope in the Tension between Belief and Experience

On Thursday as they ate the Passover meal with Jesus, the disciples believed that the kingdom was coming and they were on the front end of a revolution. Then came the tragedy of Friday and, somehow even worse, the silence of Saturday. They ran. They doubted. They despaired. Yet, within the grave, God's power was still flowing like a mighty river beneath the ice of winter. And then there was Sunday morning.

Real, raw, and achingly honest, A Glorious Dark meets readers in the ambiguity, doubt, and uncertainty we feel when our beliefs about the world don't match up to reality. Tackling tough questions like Why is faith so hard? Why do I doubt? Why does God allow me to suffer? and Is God really with me in the midst of my pain? A. J. Swoboda puts into sharp focus a faith that is greater than our personal comfort or fulfilment. He invites readers to develop a faith that embraces the tension between what we believe and what we experience, showing that the very tension we seek to eliminate is where God meets us.

Dr. Jerry Cook spent fifty years as a pastor, teaching and writing about the presence of the Holy Spirit and of Christ in everyday life—including speaking in tongues. But in a conversation with a young pastor he realized the need to explain this topic in a practical, accessible way for those who may have only been exposed to it through “shocking” manifestations of fanaticism. In this conversation, the young pastor wondered what the “big deal” was, and when Cook got over his anger at this dismissive assessment, he tackled the concept head-on. Cook first asserts that "It is possible to be a sane, intellectually honest, biblical, and dynamic Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks in tongues, and effectually ministers the full life of Christ." He does not shy away from his own doubts and struggles in the church and his personal faith, striving not to create an academic, theoretical work but to ask the right questions and provide genuine, compassionate advice. Here, find practical, Biblical answers to the questions of the young pastor and of other Christians who have struggled with this concept. Examine six significant events, from the in-breaking of God through the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, ending with the day of Pentecost. Follow the radical relocation of God from "out there" to "with us" to "in us," and visualize the remarkable implications of this radical move to the Christian's everyday life. Examine the church and the manifestation of Christ in its structure, power, and gathering. Do not wonder what Jesus would do, but ask the radical question of who he would be. What does a practical, post-modern Spirit-filled Christian look like? How is Jesus made visible in everyday living, and why is it important? Who is the church, really? In accessible terms, Cook explains that we are not just to do what Jesus would do, but rather to be who Jesus would be. In this way, we can bring visibility to His presence and access to His life and hope.

When Christ calls people, he invites them on a journey—a journey taken together in community. We have reached a point in history, however, when we think of the church as a fixed place where isolated individuals show up, consume a Christian message, drink some coffee, and get on with their lives. The times demand, and the gospel proclaims, that we recover our identity as a church that is a people on a quest for the kingdom of heaven, formed intimately by a loving God and called onto a long journey for the sake of our neighbors and our world. In The Missional Quest you’ll learn how to take your church on a long run, and how to sustain yourselves and one another along the way, through the power of God for the sake of the world.

What if that's not a bad thing? What if smallness is an advantage God wants us to use, not a problem to fix?

In The Grasshopper Myth (also available at NewSmallChurch.com), Karl Vaters takes on some of the unbiblical beliefs we've held about church growth and church size for the last several decades. Then he offers a game plan for a New Small Church.

The title comes from the story in Numbers 13. When the Hebrews were at the edge of the Promised Land, ten of the twelve spies come back with this report: "All the people we saw there are of great size. ...We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." - Numbers 13:32-33

The bestselling author of When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box; God Is Closer Than You Think; and The Life You've Always Wanted--will help you discover spiritual vitality like never before as you learn to 'live in the flow of the spirit.' But if God has a perfect vision for your life, why does spiritual growth seem so difficult? John Ortberg has some intriguing answers to that question, and he has organized his thoughts and God's words into a straightforward and timely guide for living your best life in The Me I Want to Be.

Newsweek called New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller a "C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century" in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation for why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, Keller takes his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity and uses the parable of the Prodigal Son to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.

Within that parable, Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.

'God-centered coaching has the power to change lives... both your life and the lives of those you come into contact with,' says Logan and Carlton.

God has something for each person to accomplish. He has given us a part to play in the advance of his kingdom. We are successful when we find out what part that is and learn to play it well. Coaching can help us take steps that move toward the completion of the work God has given us to do.

Coaching 101 will help you discover the power of coaching in your life both as a coach and as someone being coached. Your life will be enriched if you will open yourself up to receiving the wise counsel available from God through others who desire to enhance the potential of your life. And your heart will beat a little faster as you tap into the adventure God has made available for you, as you invest in the lives of others through coaching.

Many books describe elements of church leadership-- what it is and how to do it-- but very few focus on the process of personal transformation that is central to being able to lead well. The Leader's Journey provides a blueprint and the practical tools needed to transform the lives of pastors and congregational lay leaders so that they can become truly effective leaders. Blending the best of sound psychological research, solid Biblical principles, and proven congregational experiences-- authors Jim Herrington, Robert Creech, and Trisha Taylor offer step-by-step guidance for engaging in the personal transformation journey as part of effective congregational leadership.

Peter Scazzero learned the hard way: you can't be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was a pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do:

Avoid conflict in the name of Christianity

Ignore his anger, sadness, and fear

Use God to run from God

Live without boundaries

Eventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health, a relationship with Jesus, and the classic practices of contemplative spirituality. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution, utterly transforming him and his church.

In this best-selling book Scazzero outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested ways to break through to the revolutionary life Christ meant for you. “The combination of emotional health and contemplative spirituality,” he says, “unleashes the Holy Spirit inside us so that we might experientially know the power of an authentic life in Christ.”

As the world around us changes at record-speed, An Unstoppable Force imagines a church that embraces change by remaining fully committed to its apostolic calling.Church leaders will discover new ways of engaging communities through vibrant, relevant ministries and clear, innovative communication.

An Unstoppable Forcechallenges churches to cast aside methods that are broken or atrophied and embrace the future of the Church with vigor. McManus’s prophetic voice outlines a church that is not a refuge from the world, but a refuge to the world. Christians on the forefront of the church movement must be ready to let go of the past and move forward.

Much-Afraid had been in the service of the Chief Shepherd, whose great flocks were pastured down in the Valley of Humiliation. She lived with her friends and fellow workers Mercy and Peace in a tranquil little white cottage in the village of Much-Trembling. She loved her work and desired intensely to please the Chief Shepherd, but happy as she was in most ways, she was conscious of several things which hindered her in her work and caused her much secret distress and shame. Here is the allegorical tale of Much-Afraid, an every-woman searching for guidance from God to lead her to a higher place.